Brief update as I’ve tweaked a couple of things since my last post back in February.
- I have moved (very slowly, an inch a week to avoid arousing suspicion) the speakers out a further 7" from the wall behind. They are now 32" from the center of the backplates to the rear wall. This has further improved the soundstaging, particularly the depth, although I suspect it would improve further if I could pull them out just a bit more, maybe another 6" or so would be optimal? Unfortunately that is just not possible due to the configuration of the room. I have thought long and hard but failed to come up with any way to rearrange things in a way that would enable me to site them further out without losing a whole sofa’s worth of seating space.
- On the recommendation of a fellow Ktêma user I have swapped the Cerapucs I had them resting on for IsoAcoustic Gaia Is. This made another small but worthwhile improvement to the soundstaging which was not something I was expecting. I was anticipating improvements in the bass.
@keiserrg asked me to comment on synergies with the Vivaldi and I must say I struggle a bit there. Neither the Vivaldi nor the Ktêmas have any particular tonal coloration that the other could compensate for, to my ears they are both very faithful reproducers (as is the darTZeel power amp which undoubtedly deserves some of the credit here). But a couple of things spring to mind:
- The Vivaldi produces excellent dynamics (which should work very well on that Gil Sullivan disc as he seems to love exaggerating the dynamic swings to the greatest possible degree) and the Ktêmas reproduce this most faithfully. This is one area were small speakers will never be able to match large floorstanders and one of the first areas I would expect you to notice a difference between your Guarneris and the Ktêmas.
- The other is the bass, which is one of the first areas one notices when moving up the dCS line, and again, one where floorstanders generally able to show bookshelves a clean pair of heels. I know that the Ktêmas are giving me decently low bass (only really starting to roll off below 20 Hz in room per my measurements above) but the detail and tunefulness of that bass is something I can really enjoy through the Ktêmas. Again, that Gil Sullivan disc would probably show this well as the left hand of the C major sonata opens with a C2 followed by a G1 (ca 49 Hz) iirc. Now I haven’t listened in your room nor seen any measurements but I would expect your Guarneris to be several dB down at that frequency and certainly unable to reproduce it at anything like realistic volumes.
One anecdote just to put this all of this in perspective. A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of visiting the dCS factory in Swavesey and auditioning both the Vivaldi and Varèse systems in the demonstration room system - which at the time consisted of a large Constellation power amp (Reference?) and Wilson Alexx Vs (apologies if I’ve got the models wrong, maybe one of the dCS folks can jump in and correct me). I have to say, despite historically not having warmed to the Wilson sound I thought this system was sounding absolutely superb, it had clearly been dialed in to perfection! I played a few of my favourite demo tracks and was in awe of the size and stability of the soundstage, the effortless dynamics and the layers upon layers of detail it was presenting. Definitely one of the best systems I have ever heard!
Anyway, point being that while it was impressive beyond words there are still some things I actually prefer with my system. It is somehow mellower, more “organic”, and even if this departs from absolute fidelity I have to say it suits the music I play (a lot of classical, esp choral) and is a sound that is extremely easy to live with. So while I know I am missing out a teeny weeny bit, I don’t necessarily feel I am missing out on anything that I would enjoy more. And even if so, I fear it would be accompanied by some hard sonic edges I would rather be without.
So, @keiserrg, while it is hard to know for certain that the Ktêmas would “happily ever after” for you (although given your current choice of speakers I have my suspicions 
) I can confirm that even a night out with a supermodel has failed to convince me that I chose the wrong partner or that we won’t continue to be ”happily ever after”.